Cover not available
Article published In:
The Rise and Development of Evidential and Epistemic Markers
Edited by Silvio Cruschina and Eva-Maria Remberger
[Journal of Historical Linguistics 7:1/2] 2017
► pp. 9–47

Evidential adverbs in German

Diachronic development and present-day meaning

| University of Tübingen
| University of Tübingen

This article addresses the semantic and morphosyntactic development of the German evidential adverbs offensichtlich, offenbar, anscheinend, and scheinbar ‘obviously’/‘apparently’/‘seemingly’ and their meaning contribution in present-day German. It will be argued that these expressions, most of which are historically derived from adjectives, innovated separate lexical entries as sentence adverbs in New High German resulting from a morphosyntactic reanalysis of an ambiguous surface structure. This reanalysis was accompanied by a profound semantic change, as a result of which the expressions acquired a wide-scope reading of the type ‘there is (clear) evidence that p’. The diachronic results are corroborated by experimental data from Present-Day German that show that these evidential sentence adverbs are underspecified with respect to evidence type (inference and report). The diachronic and synchronic findings are furthermore discussed in the light of grammaticalization and subjectification theory.

Keywords: evidentiality, evidential adverbials, adverbs, German, grammaticalization, reanalysis
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.General diachronic development
  • 3. Scheinbar and scheinen in Old and Middle High German
  • 4.Development into sentence adverbs
    • 4.1Interpretation of sentence adverbials
    • 4.2Ambiguity as a source of reanalysis
    • 4.3Syntactic reanalysis and the grammar of adverbials
  • 5.Meaning contribution in Present-Day German
    • 5.1Evidence type and degree of reliability
    • 5.2Evidence type: Corpus examples
    • 5.3Evidence type and degree of reliability: A study on acceptability in context
      • Predictions
      • 5.3.1Method
        • Participants
        • Design
        • Materials
        • Procedure
        • Data analysis
      • 5.3.2Results
      • 5.3.3General discussion
      • 5.3.4Evidentiality
  • 6.Metaphorization, subjectification, and grammaticalization
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Primary sources
  • References
Published online: 23 November 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.7.1-2.02axe
References

Primary sources

Die althochdeutschen Glossen
gesammelt und bearbeitet von Elias von Steinmeyer und Eduard Sievers. 51 Bände. Berlin 1879–1922: Weidmann.Google Scholar
DeReKo Deutsches Referenzkorpus / Archiv der Korpora geschriebener Gegenwartssprache 2015-II (Release vom 28.09.2015). Mannheim: Institut für Deutsche Sprache. Available online at [URL].
DTA Deutsches Textarchiv. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften Deutsches Textarchiv. Available online at [URL].
DUDEN Deutsches Universalwörterbuch, 7.
, überarbeitete und erweiterte Auflage, hrsg. von der Dudenredaktion. Berlin: DUDEN-Verlag 2011.Google Scholar
DWb = Grimm, Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm 1854–1954: Deutsches Wörterbuch. Band 1–16. Leipzig: Hirzel. See also CD-ROM 2004: Der digitale Grimm. Frankfurt am Main: Zweitausendeins. Available online at [URL].
MHDBDB Middle High German Conceptual Database of the University of Salzburg. Available online at [URL].
TITUS Thesaurus Indogermanischer Text- und Sprachmaterialien. Available online at [URL].
Abraham, Werner
2011 Über Unhintergehbarkeiten in der modernen Modalitätsforschung. In Gabriele Diewald & Elena Smirnova, eds., 149–169.Google Scholar
Abraham, Werner & Elisabeth Leiss
eds. 2009 Modalität. Epistemik und Evidentialität bei Modalverb, Adverb, Modalpartikel und Modus. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.Google Scholar
Aikhenvald, Alexandra
2003 Evidentiality in Typological Perspective. Studies in Evidentiality ed. by Alexandra Aikhenvald & Robert M. W. Dixon, 131–164. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2004 Evidentiality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
2007 Information Source and Evidentiality: What can we conclude. Rivista di Linguistica 19:1.209–227.Google Scholar
Anderson, Lloyd B.
1986 Evidentials, Paths of Change, and Mental Maps: Typologically regular asymmetries. In Wallace Chafe & Johanna Nichols, eds., 273–312.Google Scholar
Askedal, John Ole
1998 Satzmustervariation und Hilfsverbproblematik beim deutschen Verb ‚scheinen’. Deutsche Grammatik – Thema in Variationen ed. by Karin Donhauser & Ludwig Eichinger, 49–74. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Axel-Tober, Katrin
2016 Satzadverbiale im Deutschen: synchrone und diachrone Fragen bei einem ‘scheints’ alten Thema. “dat ih dir it nu bi huldi gibu” – Linguistische, germanistische und indogermanistische Studien Rosemarie Lühr gewidmet ed. by Sergio Neri, Roland Schuhmann & Susanne Zeilfelder, 23–33. Wiesbaden: Reichert.Google Scholar
Ballweg, Joachim
2009 Modalpartikel. Handbuch der deutschen Wortarten ed. by Ludger Hoffmann, 547–554. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Bellert, Irena
1977 On Semantic and Distributional Properties of Sentential Adverbs. Linguistic Inquiry 81.337–351.Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan
1985 Morphology: A Study of the relation between meaning and form. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chafe, Wallace & Johanna Nichols
eds. 1986 Evidentiality: The linguistic coding of epistemology. Norwood: Ablex.Google Scholar
Chafe, Wallace
1986 Evidentiality in English Conversation and Academic Writing. In Wallace Chafe & Johanna Nichols, eds., 261–272.Google Scholar
Cinque, Guglielmo
1999 Adverbs and Functional Heads: A cross-linguisic perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cornillie, Bert
2007 The Continuum Between Lexical and Grammatical Evidentiality: A functional analysis of Spanish ‘parecer’. Rivista di Linguistica 19:1.109–128.Google Scholar
2010 An Interactional Approach to Evidential and Epistemic Adverbs in Spanish Conversation. In Gabriele Diewald & Elena Smirnova, eds., 309–330.Google Scholar
Cruschina, Silvio
2010 On the Syntactic Status of Sentential Adverbs and Modal Particles. STUF Language Typology and Universals 63:4.345–357. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cruschina, Silvio & Eva Remberger
2008 Hearsay and Reported Speech: Evidentiality in Romance. Selected Proceedings of the 34th Incontro di Grammatica Generativa ed. by Paola Benincà, Federico Damonte, & Nicoletta Penello. Special issue of the Rivista di Grammatica Generativa 331.99–120.Google Scholar
De Haan, Ferdinand
1999 Evidentiality and Epistemic Modality: Setting boundaries. Southwest Journal of Linguistics 18:1.83–101.Google Scholar
Dendale, Patrick & Julie van Bogaert
2007 A Semantic Description of French Lexical Evidential Markers and the Classification of Evidentials. Rivista di Linguistica 19:1.65–89.Google Scholar
Diewald, Gabriele & Elena Smirnova
2010a Evidentiality in German: Linguistic realization and regularities in grammaticalization. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
eds. 2010b The Linguistic Realization of Evidentiality in European Languages. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
eds. 2011 Modalität und Evidentialität. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier.Google Scholar
Ebert, Robert P.
1976 Infinitival Complement Constructions in Early New High German. Tübingen: Niemeyer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eisenberg, Peter
1999 Grundriss der deutschen Grammatik. Vol. 2: Der Satz. Stuttgart: Metzler. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ernst, Thomas
2002 The Syntax of Adjuncts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Eroms, Hans-Werner
2006 Satzadverbien und Diskurspartikeln. Dependenz und Valenz, Band 2, ed. by Vilmos Ágel, 1017–1036. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Fabricius-Hansen, Cathrine & Kjell J. Sæbø
2004 In a Mediative Mood: The semantics of the German reportive subjunctive. Natural Language Semantics 12:3.213–257. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Faller, Martina
2002 Semantics and Pragmatics of Evidentials in Cuzco Quechua. Stanford University PhD thesis.Google Scholar
Ferraresi, Gisella
2011 Das Vorfeld als Baustelle des Deutschen: Wandel und Variation bei Adverbkonnektoren. Konnektoren im Deutschen und im Sprachvergleich: Beschreibung und grammatische Analyse ed. by Gisella Ferraresi, 225–250. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
Flury, Robert
1964 Struktur- und Bedeutungsgeschichte des Adjektiv-Suffixes ‘-bar’. University of Zurich PhD thesis.Google Scholar
Frey, Werner & Karin Pittner
1998 Zur Positionierung der Adverbiale im deutschen Mittelfeld. Linguistische Berichte 1761.489–534.Google Scholar
Grice, Paul
1975 Logic and Conversation. Syntax and Semantics 3 ed. by Peter Cole & Jerry L. Morgan, 41–58. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hacquard, Valentine
2013 On the Grammatical Category of Modality. Proceedings of the 19th Amsterdam Colloquium ed. by Maria Aloni, Michael Franke, and Floris Roelofsen. Available online at [URL].
Haider, Hubert
2000 Adverb Placement: Convergence of structure and licensing. Theoretical Linguistics 261:1–2.95–134. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2004 Pre- and postverbal adverbials in OV and VO. Lingua 1141.779–807. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K.
1994 An Introduction to Functional Grammar. 2nd ed. London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Helbig, Gerhard
1970 Sind Negationswörter, Modalwörter und Partikeln im Deutschen besondere Wortarten? Deutsch als Fremdsprache 71.393–401.Google Scholar
Hetland, Jorunn
1992 Satzadverbien im Fokus. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul J. & Elisabeth C. Traugott
2003 Grammaticalization. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Katny, Andrzej
1980 Die Modalverben und Modalwörter im Deutschen und im Polnischen. Rzeszów, Wyd. Uczelniane.Google Scholar
Kratzer, Angelika
1991 Modality. Semantics: An international handbook of contemporary research ed. by Dieter Wunderlich & Arnim von Stechow, 639–650. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
2012 Modals and Conditionals. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, George & Mark Johnson
1999 Philosophy in the Flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Lang, Ewald
1979 Zum Status der Satzadverbiale. Slovo a Slovenost XL1 31.200–213.Google Scholar
Leiss, Elisabeth
2009 Drei Spielarten der Epistemizität, drei Spielarten der Evidentialität und drei Spielarten des Wissens. Modalität. Epistemik und Evidentialität bei Modalverb, Adverb, Modalpartikel und Modus ed. by Werner Abraham & Elisabeth Leiss, 3–24. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.Google Scholar
2011 Lexikalische versus grammatische Epistemizität und Evidentialität: Plädoyer für eine klare Trennung von Lexikon und Grammatik. In Gabriele Diewald & Elena Smirnova, eds., 149–169.Google Scholar
Matthewson, Lisa, Henry Davis, & Hotze Rullmann
2007 Evidentials as Epistemic Modals: Evidence from St’át’imcets. Linguistic Variation Yearbook 71.201–254. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Moltmann, Friederike
2007 Events, Tropes and Truthmaking. Philosophical Studies 1341.363–403. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2009 Degree Structure as Trope Structure: A trope-based analysis of comparative and positive adjectives. Linguistics and Philosophy 321.51–94. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mortelmans, Tanja
2000 On the Evidential Nature of the Epistemic Use of the German Modals ‘müssen’ and ‘sollen’. Modal Verbs in Germanic and Romance Languages ed. by Johan van der Auwera & Patrick Dendale, 131–148. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Newmeyer, Frederick
2001 Deconstructing Grammaticalization. Language Sciences 231.187–229. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Paraschkewoff, Boris
1976 Zur Entstehung und Entwicklungsgeschichte der Bildungen auf ‘-weise’ (part 1). Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur (Halle) 971.165–211.Google Scholar
Pittner, Karin
1999 Adverbiale im Deutschen. Untersuchungen zu ihrer Stellung und Interpretation. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.Google Scholar
Plungian, Vladimir
2010 Types of Verbal Evidentiality Marking: An overview. In Gabriele Diewald & Elena Smirnova, eds., 15–58.Google Scholar
Portner, Paul
2009 Modality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Reis, Marga
2001 Bilden Modalverben im Deutschen eine syntaktische Klasse? Modalität und Modalverben im Deutschen ed. by Reimar Müller & Marga Reis, 287–318. Hamburg: Buske.Google Scholar
2005 Zur Grammatik der sog. Halbmodale drohen/versprechen +  Infinitiv. Deutsche Syntax: Empirie und Theorie ed. by Franz J. D’Avis, 125–145. Göteborg. (Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis).Google Scholar
2007 Modals, So-called Semi-Modals, and Grammaticalization in German. Interdisciplinary Journal for Germanic Linguistics and Semiotic Analysis 121.1–57.Google Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi
1997 The Fine Structure of the Left Periphery. Elements of Grammar. A handbook in generative syntax ed. by Liliane Haegeman, 281–337. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Roberts, Ian & Anna Roussou
2003 Syntactic Change: A Minimalist approach to grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rullmann, Hotze, Lisa Matthewson, & Henry Davis
2008 Modals as Distributive Indefinites. Natural Language Semantics 16:4.317–357. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schäfer, Martin
2013 Positions and Interpretations. German Adverbial Adjectives at the Syntax-Semantics Interface. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schenner, Mathias
2008 Double Face Evidentials in German: Reportative ‘sollen’ and ‘wollen’ in embedded contexts. Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 121.552–566.Google Scholar
Schützeichel, Rudolf
2012 Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Socka, Anna
2010 Reportative Partikeln in kontrastiver Sicht (Polnisch – Deutsch). Modalität, Temporalität in kontrastiver und typologischer Sicht ed. by Andrzej Katny & Anna Socka, 239–264. Frankfurt: Lang.Google Scholar
2011 Evidentialität und Epistemizität in der Bedeutung reportativer Satzadverbien im Polnischen und Deutschen. In Gabriele Diewald & Elena Smirnova, eds., 49–68.Google Scholar
Stolterfoht, Britta
2015 Ambiguity and Sentence Position: An experimental case study on manner adverbs. Ambiguity ed. by Susanne Winkler, 171–183. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Störzer, Melanie
2013 Syntaktische Basispositionen für Adjunkte? Psycholinguistische Untersuchungen zum Stellungsverhalten von Frameadverbialen und Satzadverbialen. Hamburg: disserta Verlag.Google Scholar
Swan, Toril
1981 Modal Adverbs. Papers from the First Nordic Conference for English Studies ed. by Stig Johansson & Bjørn Tysdahl, 17–19. Oslo: Institute of English studies.Google Scholar
1988 Sentence Adverbials in English: A synchronic and diachronic investigation. Oslo: Novus.Google Scholar
Tabor, Whitney & Elizabeth C. Traugott
1998 Structural Scope Expansion and Grammaticalization. The Limits of Grammaticalization ed. by Anna Giacalone Ramat, & Paul J. Hopper, 227–270. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth C.
1989 On the Rise of Epistemic Meanings in English: An example of subjectification in semantic change. Language 571.33–65.Google Scholar
2010 Revisiting Subjectification and Intersubjectification. Subjectification, Intersubjectification and Grammaticalization ed. by Kristin Davidse, Lieven Vandelanotte, & Hubert Cuyckens, 29–70. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Van Gelderen, Elly
2004 Grammaticalization as Economy. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2011 The Linguistic Cycle: Language change and the language faculty. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wiemer, Björn
2005 Conceptual Affinities and Diachronic Relationships Between Epistemic, Inferential and Quotative Functions. Modality in Slavonic Languages: New perspectives ed. by Bjoern Hansen & Petr Karlík, 107–131. München: Sagner.Google Scholar
2010 Hearsay in European Languages. In Gabriele Diewald & Elena Smirnova, eds., 59–129.Google Scholar
Willett, Thomas L.
1988 A Cross-Linguistic Survey of the Grammaticization of Evidentiality. Studies in Language 12:1.51–97. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zifonun, Gisela, Ludger Hoffmann, & Bruno Strecker
1997 Grammatik der deutschen Sprache. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Coniglio, Marco
2022. Chapter 1. On the adverbial origin of German modal particles. In Discourse Particles [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 276], ► pp. 13 ff. DOI logo
Drolma, Dawa & Hiroyuki Suzuki
2023. The paradigmaticity of evidentials in the Tibetic languages of Khams. Studies in Language DOI logo
Ruskan, Anna
2021. Visual perception-based adverbials: Cross-linguistic equivalence and differences. Journal of Pragmatics 186 ► pp. 208 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 1 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.